The Forum for Civil Dialog, through its member organizations, signed Memorandum for the implementation of civic priorities for the period 2026–2029 with the municipalities of Struga, Kriva Palanka, Shtip, Demir Hisar, Sveti Nikole, and Krushevo.
The signing of the memorandum represents the final activity in the consultation process with citizens from these municipalities aimed at identifying local priorities. By signing the Memorandum, the mayors assume an obligation to implement the priorities that emerged from direct consultations with citizens.
The Forum for Civil Dialog conducted the consultative process in the period preceding and during the 2025 local elections (September–October) in all six municipalities. More than 1,100 citizens were involved through informal meetings with various groups, an online survey, six public consultative meetings with citizens in each municipality, as well as six public forums where citizens directly engaged in dialogue with mayoral candidates and candidates heading municipal council lists.
All activities within the consultative process were focused on three key objectives:
- Identifying the most important local priorities as defined by citizens;
- Encouraging direct and transparent dialogue between citizens and candidates for local office;
- Increasing the likelihood that these priorities would be integrated into the programmes and work of the newly elected authorities.
The meetings included diverse groups of citizens—women from rural areas, youth, older persons, local businesses, members of vulnerable groups, and local civic activists. This approach enabled citizens to articulate everyday issues they face: from infrastructure challenges, public services, and traffic, to issues related to local development, quality of life, and support for youth, women, and vulnerable groups.
In parallel, the public consultative meetings strengthened the process of joint consideration and ranking of proposals. Across all municipalities, similar needs prevailed: ensuring access to clean drinking water, sewerage systems and wastewater treatment plants; sustainable waste management; reconstruction of local road infrastructure; regulation of traffic and parking; improvement or establishment of public transport; enhancement of educational and sports infrastructure; opening functional youth centres, and more. Differences among municipalities stem from local specificities, such as tourism in Krushevo. A detailed overview of the identified priorities by municipality can be found in our report “Forum for Civil Dialog and the 2025 Local Elections: Civic Priorities – Results of the Consultative Process.”
The core part of the process concluded with six public forums where mayoral candidates heard the priorities identified by citizens and presented their views, proposals, and commitments. The majority of candidates in each municipality participated actively, while citizens used these forums to obtain concrete answers and explanations regarding the feasibility of the proposed priorities and needs. Most candidates expressed readiness to support the civic priorities, noting that the implementation of some would depend on the financial and administrative capacities of the municipalities.
The signing of the Memorandum for the Implementation of Civic Priorities 2026–2029 by the now elected mayors formally concluded the consultative process.
The Forum for Civil Dialog (FCD) is a network of civil society organizations coordinated by NGO Info-centre. Active members of the network are: Glasen Tekstilec – Shtip, Youth Cultural Center – Bitola, RCS Spektar – Kriva Palanka, Women’s Civic Initiative – Sveti Nikole, and the Community Center of the Municipality of Struga.
The consultative process of the Forum for Civic Dialogue was carried out within the project “Active Citizens and Participatory Democracy at Local Level,” supported by the international center Olof Palme from Sweden.
